How To Fail Like a Pro

Are you beyond ambitious? Are you the go-getter, the trend-setter, the risk taker, the guy who is always pushing to better himself? If that’s you, it’s likely you do not deal well with failure. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. When you push yourself so hard and get a real high from success, the lows are always going to be that much harder to take. However, failure is a really important part of life and as much as you will and should try to avoid it, when it happens it will help to embrace it. The thought of embracing failure may make you come out in a cold sweat and feel a little bit sick, but you can do it with these simple tips:

It is so important that you know yourself, that you have your own personal mission statement and know where you are trying to get to. Everyone needs a purpose and knowing and understanding what yours is, whether that’s in business or in your personal life – means you get a much faster route back to motivation after you have been met with failure. You’ll have the perspective to be able to see what the block was – be able to see how it won’t stop you fulfilling your purpose and reaching your goals. Without a strong sense of purpose and an excellent mission statement – failures can seem much bigger than they actually are in the grand scheme of things.

Know Your Goals

If you know your mission, know where you are trying to get to – goals will be easy to list. If you fail at anything, your goals won’t disappear, in fact you’ll be even more eager to achieve them. Plus, by listing your goals and working hard to reach them, failure is actually much less likely to happen.

Know What’s Great About Your Goals

As much as it is important having goals, it is also just as important to know why you have those goals. Knowing the benefits of your goals will enable you to recognise why failures don’t mean you should give up. The pain of the failure will not match the incredible sense of worth you feel when you achieve one of your goals. Just make sure the goals aren’t just focused around benefiting you – create a larger and broader sense of purpose. How will these goals benefit your friends and family? How will they benefit your organisation?

Create Your Own Circle Of Ambition

As an ambitious person, it is so important you are able to interact with people who think similarly to you. Interacting with people who literally squash your dreams, can only ever have a negative effect on you eventually. Even if the naysayers make you more determined short term, somewhere in your psyche they will have planted a seed that makes you question what you’re doing. Supportive friends and family should be treasured, and ambitious people you can chat with are important as well, especially mentors – they will help you fly.

Never Believe Failure Is Forever

When people suffer with OCD, they are often taught to accept that it may be possible that something bad might happen if they don’t wash their hands several times or if they touch door handles (or whatever their tips are). This therapy is effective because it helps those people stop being scared of what could happen, and therefore they are able to stop trying to control a situation that is out of their control. Similarly, with failure, if you accept that despite your best efforts you may still fail, you stop worrying about the potential downfall and start focusing on the potential wins. When you do fail, learn to understand it is only ever temporary and you are completely able to push past the failure and succeed – in fact failures can be valuable in helping you learn how to move forward. Without certain failures, certain successes may not happen.

Remember, being ambitious is a fantastic thing but it can be hard at times and takes a lot of work to maintain without taking hits really hard. Have a flexible perspective and use your ambitious personality to help you turn failures into important tools for success.